Tarlton Beetroot Business Plan — Implementation Roadmap

The staged programme from seed tranche through the Series A gate to full production, with the test at each stage.

Section 21 of 37

Implementation Roadmap

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Sixty months across five workstreams, with the critical path running through water verification, land transfer and packhouse commissioning.

Figure 1. Implementation roadmap by workstream, months 1 to 60.

Table 31 Milestones and dependencies

Month	Milestone	Phase	Dependency and consequence of slippage
1	Tranche A closes; Tarlton lease signed	Pre-launch	Nothing precedes it. Slippage moves the entire programme.
3	First hectare planted	Pre-launch	Irrigation commissioned and land prepared. A one-month slip loses the first harvest window.
6	First commercial harvest and market consignment	Launch	Market agent appointed. Establishes the grading track record retail buyers will later assess.
12	LocalG.A.P. achieved; area expanded to 3 ha	Launch	Prerequisite for the GLOBALG.A.P. pathway.
14	Land search formally commenced	Ramp-up	Runs in parallel; 12 months is a realistic search-to-offer period for a water-entitled property.
18	First retail category buyer engagement	Ramp-up	Requires certification in progress. Late engagement is the single most common cause of Year 4 volume falling back onto the market floor.
22	Preferred property identified; due diligence begins	Ramp-up	Critical path. Water verification is the long pole and takes 8 to 12 weeks.
24	Series A first call (62 per cent) drawn	Ramp-up	Conditional on verified water entitlement and signed sale agreement.
26	Transfer registered; mortgage bond drawn	Ramp-up	Conveyancing typically 8 to 12 weeks from acceptance. Slippage delays the entire Phase 2 planting programme by a season.
28	Bulk irrigation commissioned	Ramp-up	Critical path. Cannot plant at scale without it.
30	Series A second call (38 per cent) drawn; first 34 ha planted	Ramp-up	Conditional on irrigation commissioning and first retail trial completed.
34	Packhouse commissioned	Scale-up	Critical path for the retail channel. Every month of delay costs approximately R0.20/kg on volume that must be contract-packed instead.
36	GLOBALG.A.P. certified; first EBITDA-positive month	Scale-up	Certification is a precondition for the first supply agreement.
38	First seasonal retail supply agreement signed	Scale-up	The commercial hinge of the plan. Without it, Year 4 realisation falls to roughly R6.60/kg and the base case fails.
48	Second retail agreement; area extended to full 62 ha arable	Expansion	Requires the R7.5 million working capital facility to be in place.
60	Steady state; exit readiness	Expansion	Normalised EBITDA of R7.40 million supports the sum-of-parts valuation.